Just some random questions for you guys 
Rex is always trying to scale the wall. As you can imagine, it doesn't work out well for him. He's been doing it since the day we brought him home, several years ago. Is there some way to prevent this? What are the causes behind it?
I've got his heating pad on the opposite side as his heat lamp, with his cave over top. This is mainly because in the winter months, it can take hours for the tank to heat up enough for him to be warm enough to come out. Since its currently pretty warm in the house, about 78 when its warm outside, should I switch the lamp and cave, so that the lamp is with the heating pad (or elsewhere) and the cave is on the cool side? Since applying the heating pad, he's preferred to sleep on a large mound of sand outside of the cave (with his head resting on the edge of the cave as a pillow) for most of the night, usually only retreating into the cave when he wants to be curled up, or when spooked.
And about his nails... He was on play sand, but it wasn't wearing his nails down very well. He's now on multi-purpose sand, with a larger grain size, and that still doesn't seem to help. He hates to be handled, so I'd like for physical nail cutting to be a last resort. I was thinking, maybe a DIY background, with ledges and places to climb and play, coated in grout (or what else?) would help wear his nails down. They aren't horrible, but they are pretty long.
When offering spinach (I try not to very often, but I bought him some salad and they were out of the spring mix, so I got him 1/2 and 1/2, spring mix and spinach), should I be dusting with his calcium? I usually dust daily, but when spinach is involved, I dust more like 1-2 times a week. I'll admit to not fully understanding the whole spinach thing, so I could be wrong in my dusting habits when its involved.
Last one for now, I've got him on sand, obviously. He loves being able to dig out his sleeping spot in his cave, and loves to show his disapprovement at things (like food he doesn't want) by kicking the sand around, and just over all loves to play in it. However, its dusty, annoying to clean, gets everywhere (the brat flings it all over. We have to wipe the screen and lights off constantly), and so on. But I hate to take it away from him. Could I, say, make a raised floor or tile, and in a recess, keep a "sand box" and keep his cave over that, or something along those lines? I could use a small hand brush to sweep any escaped sand back into where it goes. Do you think that would work? Would the space under the raised floor stay heated enough from the heating pad to keep the tile at a good temp?
Heres a picture of his current set up. 40 breeder, 36 inch 10.0 ReptiSun UV, 150 watt heat lamp, large ZooMed UTH on the left side. I change the stuff on the right every time I clean the tank. And that sand was flat and clean yesterday -_-
And here's the trouble maker himself (you can see his nails are kind of long)
Rex is always trying to scale the wall. As you can imagine, it doesn't work out well for him. He's been doing it since the day we brought him home, several years ago. Is there some way to prevent this? What are the causes behind it?
I've got his heating pad on the opposite side as his heat lamp, with his cave over top. This is mainly because in the winter months, it can take hours for the tank to heat up enough for him to be warm enough to come out. Since its currently pretty warm in the house, about 78 when its warm outside, should I switch the lamp and cave, so that the lamp is with the heating pad (or elsewhere) and the cave is on the cool side? Since applying the heating pad, he's preferred to sleep on a large mound of sand outside of the cave (with his head resting on the edge of the cave as a pillow) for most of the night, usually only retreating into the cave when he wants to be curled up, or when spooked.
And about his nails... He was on play sand, but it wasn't wearing his nails down very well. He's now on multi-purpose sand, with a larger grain size, and that still doesn't seem to help. He hates to be handled, so I'd like for physical nail cutting to be a last resort. I was thinking, maybe a DIY background, with ledges and places to climb and play, coated in grout (or what else?) would help wear his nails down. They aren't horrible, but they are pretty long.
When offering spinach (I try not to very often, but I bought him some salad and they were out of the spring mix, so I got him 1/2 and 1/2, spring mix and spinach), should I be dusting with his calcium? I usually dust daily, but when spinach is involved, I dust more like 1-2 times a week. I'll admit to not fully understanding the whole spinach thing, so I could be wrong in my dusting habits when its involved.
Last one for now, I've got him on sand, obviously. He loves being able to dig out his sleeping spot in his cave, and loves to show his disapprovement at things (like food he doesn't want) by kicking the sand around, and just over all loves to play in it. However, its dusty, annoying to clean, gets everywhere (the brat flings it all over. We have to wipe the screen and lights off constantly), and so on. But I hate to take it away from him. Could I, say, make a raised floor or tile, and in a recess, keep a "sand box" and keep his cave over that, or something along those lines? I could use a small hand brush to sweep any escaped sand back into where it goes. Do you think that would work? Would the space under the raised floor stay heated enough from the heating pad to keep the tile at a good temp?
Heres a picture of his current set up. 40 breeder, 36 inch 10.0 ReptiSun UV, 150 watt heat lamp, large ZooMed UTH on the left side. I change the stuff on the right every time I clean the tank. And that sand was flat and clean yesterday -_-
And here's the trouble maker himself
(you can see his nails are kind of long)
